FIG. 1 depicts a portion of a conventional energy assisted magnetic recording (EAMR) transducer 10. For clarity, FIG. 1 is not to scale. The conventional EAMR transducer 10 is used in writing a recording media (not shown in FIG. 1) and receives light, or energy, from a conventional laser (not shown in FIG. 1). The conventional EAMR transducer 10 includes a conventional waveguide 12, coil connection 18, a conventional grating 20, a conventional near-field transducer (NFT) 22, and a conventional pole 30. Light from a laser (not shown) is incident on the grating 20, which coupled light to the waveguide 12. Light is guided by the conventional waveguide 12 to the NFT 22 near the air-bearing surface (ABS). In the embodiment shown, the conventional waveguide 12 is a parabolic solid immersion mirror. The NFT 22 focuses the light to magnetic recording media (not shown), such as a disk. The coil connection 18 provides a mechanism for electrically coupling the coils to a current source (not shown). The portion of the pole 30 shown corresponds to the back gap of the pole 30.
In operation, light from the laser is coupled to the conventional EAMR transducer 10 using the grating 20. The waveguide 12 directs light from the grating 12 to the NFT 22. The NFT 22 focuses the light from the waveguide 12 and heats a small region of the conventional media (not shown). The conventional EAMR transducer 10 magnetically writes data to the heated region of the recording media by energizing the conventional pole 30.
Although the conventional EAMR transducer 10 may function, there are drawbacks. For certain types of NFTs 22, a longitudinal polarization is desired. Generally, this polarization is achieved by combining a half-pitch shifted grating for the grating 20 with parabolic solid immersion mirror for the waveguide 12. However, the back gap of the pole 30 and coil connection 18 block a portion of the light from the waveguide 12. In particular, dashed lines 14 and 16 in FIG. 1 indicate the region in which light coupled in by the grating 20 is blocked. Consequently, this portion of the light is not coupled into the NFT 22. This portion of the light is also generally the most intense. As a result, the NFT 22 cannot make use of the most intense portion of the light from the laser. Efficiency of the NFT 22, and thus the EAMR transducer 10, is adversely affected.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for improving efficiency and performance of an NFT.